Dire need for truly affordable housing must be met with action, not just political promises

If there are secret orders for Hawaii’s governors, they must include the admonishment that every four years you shall call for a $100 million housing program.

As long as 48 years ago, now-retired Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Helen Altonn wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that when the administration of Gov. John A. Burns faced a tough campaign against his lieutenant governor, Tom Gill, he came out with his own $100 million project.

Prior to that, The Honolulu Advertiser had noted that Burns called for developers to limit profits, that employee housing must be considered for the neighbor islands and that labor will have to ease some of its job protections.

“What happens in the next few weeks will say much about the sincerity and ability of everyone to face a crisis long ignored,” the Advertiser editorialized at the start of 1970 Legislature.

So what has changed?

This year Gov. David Ige and the state Legislature, according to Ige’s campaign, “have added $150 million to the state’s affordable housing accounts.”

The state, meanwhile, has multiplied its crises, with both a housing crisis and a homeless crisis.

Last week, the Star-Advertiser’s Dan Nakaso reported that the police have been given authority to roust the homeless from the state’s Kakaako Waterfront Park, putting the homeless on a daily trek between that park and Mother Waldron Park in Kakaako. It is a ping-pong game of human misery.

Cherie Phillips, 67, called being homeless in Honolulu “the most horrible experience you can imagine,” Nakaso wrote. “People curse at me, say terrible things from the car. … They treat me really bad.”

Ige and Democratic primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, are both recognizing Hawaii’s housing problems, but full-blown solutions don’t appear to be coming quickly.

First, Ige says he’s “on track to build 10,000 units by 2020.”

Of the 5,300 units that Ige said have been built since taking office, 40 percent are affordable.

What is not said is that the definition for affordable would be a stretch for many. For instance, included in the list is Kaneohe Elderly Apartments, which rents a 588-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath unit for $1,895. Another rental, Keahou Lane in Kakaako, starts out with studios ranging from 298 to 368 square feet for between $1,319 to $1,550 a month.

Also included in Ige’s tally of new housing construction are 1,914 “market-priced” units in Kakaako. Those aren’t market-priced — they are sky-high priced and even if you have a million dollars in your checking account, you probably can’t afford to be looking at them.

Hanabusa said her administration would link up state land with affordable housing along the city’s rail route and also “expedite development of sustainable affordable housing projects … identify and eliminate regulatory overlap … consolidate funding sources and streamline procurement.”

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest housing numbers. Since 2010 we have 4.5 percent more housing units. But as we all know, that is not enough.

The Hawaii housing crisis is a catastrophe that needs more than million-dollar promises and bromides. It needs real, tough calls to spend the money to build housing, limit rents and show construction, not sympathy.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.